Texas cities find it can take a lot of green to be 'green'

Updated 9:24 pm, Saturday, March 3, 2012

An electric vehicle charges outside City Hall in Houston. The city partnered with Reliant Energy to convert ten city-owned Toyota Priuses into plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.

An electric vehicle charges outside City Hall in Houston. The city partnered with Reliant Energy to convert ten city-owned Toyota Priuses into plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.

Photo: Johnny Hanson

Texas cities find it can take a lot of green to be 'green'

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College Station, the maroon-hued home of Texas A&M University, is finding it is not easy being green.

Four years after launching an ambitious local effort to fight global warming, city leaders say their high hopes have fallen to hard economic realities, forcing them to abandon their green-at-all-costs approach.

The College Station City Council decided last month that its green efforts should be "fiscally responsible" and create "a real and tangible return of investment to the city." The city also no longer will strive be a leader in energy efficiency and the reduction of emissions from carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases.

"Enthusiasm remains, but it is tempered by the current economy," said Bob Cowell, the city's planning director.

So, now the city, for example, will look at the cost of maintenance and the lifespan of a hybrid vehicle before buying one. If the objective is a greener fleet, the city may look at reducing its size, instead of adding another hybrid, Cowell said.

"We are being a little more deliberate," he said.

More Information

Top green technologies used by cities

1 1: LED/other energy efficient lighting

1 2: Retrofitted public buildings

1 3: Energy efficient appliances

1 4: Hybrid vehicles

1 5: Solar electricity generation

Source: U.S. Conference of Mayors

Top goals of cities' energy strategies

1 1: Maximizing energy efficiency

1 2: Attracting new businesses

1 3: Retaining energy dollars in local economy

1 4: Reducing cost of energy

1 5: Developing a greener economy

1 6: Reducing environmental impacts

Source: U.S. Conference of Mayors

While College Station stands as a cautionary tale about the limits of good intentions, its story is hardly unique.

More than 1,000 municipalities - large and small, urban and rural - have signed a U.S. Conference of Mayors' agreement that calls for cities to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide below 1990 levels during the next few years. College Station made the pledge in 2008, joining 31 Texas cities, including Austin and Dallas. Houston has not signed the pledge but was honored last year by the mayors' group for its energy efficiency efforts.

Money, meanwhile, is tight. Everywhere.

A recent survey of 396 cities by the mayors' group identified financial constraints as the biggest obstacle to their promises on climate protection. Limited city budgets, high up-front costs and the uncertainty of the rates of return on new technology have slowed their efforts, the survey found.

Albuquerque, N.M., for example, abandoned its stringent building code in December in favor of a less expensive one. The city sought to be a leader in energy efficiency with the code, but scrapped it after complaints over the cost of compliance.

Grants to be scarce

Cities have relied on federal grants to fund their efforts, but the money is drying up. College Station, for one, received $791,000 from the federal government in 2009 to purchase hybrid vehicles and more energy-efficient lights for parking lots, among other projects.

"Any city banking on federal grants in the next few years is going to have a difficult time," said Colin Meehan, a clean energy analyst for the Environmental Defense Fund, an advocacy group. "They will not see the same money they did three years ago."

Meehan said cities will need partnerships with corporations and nonprofit groups to achieve their goals. San Antonio, for example, recently attracted two South Korean firms to provide 400 megawatts of solar power - enough zero-emissions electricity for 80,000 homes.

Houston, meanwhile, has encouraged more than 400 businesses to compete with one another to reduce energy and water usage, with the city covering 20 percent of improvement costs. The city also has reached agreements with two companies to install 200 charging stations for electric cars.

Laura Spanjian, Houston's sustainability director, said the city has goals to provide more incentives for energy-efficient offices, to expand its curbside recycling program to all households and to develop a detailed plan to reduce its carbon footprint.

The city, she said, can push forward because of a supportive mayor and its size, which helps to attract corporate partners and grants.

With a population of nearly 100,000 people, College Station began its green campaign with a long view to protect the environment, as well as save taxpayer dollars and build the local economy. At the time, a city study concluded that it faced a future with a deficient tax base, inadequate water supply, traffic problems and lower quality of life without changes to business as usual.

Federal aid allowed the city to install a more water-efficient irrigation system and solar-powered trash compactors at two parks and expand its fleet to 21 hybrid vehicles.

The city also performed free energy audits for homes and businesses and issued rebates for more efficient central air conditioners.

It bought flood-prone land for greenbelts and switched to treated wastewater to irrigate a local golf course.

Green "here to stay"

City Councilman Dave Ruesink, a retired Texas A&M sociologist, said many of those projects would not have happened without the city's new green emphasis. That will not go away, but the council must look at projects in the face of a tightening budget, he said.

One example: The city is building a fire station that does not contain any green elements beyond current energy-efficiency standards. The new fire station should be less expensive per square foot, city officials said.

"I think green is here to stay," said Ruesink, the only remaining member of the council that first backed the Green College Station program. "We are no way backing away from it. What we are now looking at is how long will it take to recoup our investment."